19/12/2011

Fair Warning: World of Star Wars

Like many people in the WoW blogosphere, I'm currently trying out Star Wars: The Old Republic. For me this is a big step though, because unlike many other bloggers, I've never really tried out any MMO other than WoW. To be honest, none of them ever looked interesting enough to me to make me want to play them, and none of them looked like worlds I'd want to immerse myself in. Observing various MMO launches over the years and seeing pretty much every single game go from the hyped up Next Big Thing to just another small fish in a big pond hasn't really enthused me towards trying something new either.

SWTOR has been different for me however. I wasn't interested in it at all initially, but the closer it came to release, the more I learned about it that had me really intrigued. Now I even ended up in the early access for preorders, and I'm positively hooked. People are already nitpicking about all kinds of little things, and I can't honestly say that they are wrong, but a lot of it strikes me as akin to criticising a painting for the brand of colours the artist used and completely missing the actual picture. I imagine that very few people ever quit their MMO of choice because the chat window wasn't in their favourite place or the crafting system felt a bit bloated. And TOR's big picture is great in my personal opinion. In fact, I'm very much reminded of WoW the way it was when I first started playing: a beautifully stylised world, vibrant and teeming with activity; general chat full of people looking for groups, answering questions and sharing their thoughts on the experience. Group content that can actually kill you; elites out in the world that you have to keep a watchful eye on. People bonding in guild groups where nobody minds if one member gets lost on the way and takes a while to actually arrive. And to spice things up, some comparatively minor new features like more interactive quests and companion crafting.

Anyway, before anyone feels sickened by my gushing, let it be said that I won't be doing any more blogging about TOR on here. This was always meant to be a blog about WoW, and that's what it's going to stay. I think I'll be happy just enjoying TOR "blindly" for a while, without overthinking any of it, but if I do eventually feel the urge to talk about it more, I'll make a new blog for that.

To be honest, I initially expected to cancel my WoW sub by the end of this month. I still think that it's a great game in many ways, but over the years it has changed too much for my taste - the only issue was that I wanted to continue playing an MMO and until now there wasn't anything that looked even remotely like a viable alternative to me.

The only "problem" that remains are that social ties are hard to sever. I still owe someone a Sulfuron Hammer for which I need to grind Molten Core trash every now and then. My rated battleground team is still ace. For these things alone I'll stay subscribed to WoW for now. But I expect that I'll be playing a lot less, and as a result this blog might become quiet as well, as I'll have nothing much to talk about.

In the meantime, I hope that we can all continue to have fun in the game(s) of our choice.

10 comments:

  1. Well-said. We're in the same boat, and that means we can't be the only ones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well Shintar, if opening a TOR blog is what's needed for you to stick around after leaving WoW, I'm all for it! ^^

    I'm probably one of the few who are not playing this right now, I just can't find anything about it much to my liking. the setting is all wrong and I dislike the graphics - two very big hurdles to overcome for me personally. Still, your short review and first impressions piqued my interest a lot more than any of the long-winded articles I've browsed so far.
    it's probably for the better though - I can't afford to play much at the moment. will see how I feel about this in february! :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm with Syl. Start up a TOR blog!

    As for people I know in-game, I know of a couple of people seriously considering dropping and going with TOR completely. Cata and the upcoming Mists of Pandaria aren't exactly doing it for them.

    As for me, I don't know. I have an alternate MMO or two that I play when WoW doesn't grab me, but they're both following the FTP model so I don't have to spend extra cash on them. Hard to say if I'll jump ship for TOR, but right now I really doubt it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tried SWTOR, but my reaction wasn't very positive at all. I already find myself unwilling to log back in.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm the same way. I never jumped on board for antother MMO. I thought about Star Trek once, but ended up not liking what I was seeing. Star Wars had mer from the first video I watched. I even bought my first Collector's Edition, something I haven't even done with WoW. I'm not going to give up on WoW (I did opt in for the 1 year deal) my guild still raids and with the more streamlined play I have time to invest in another MMO. Easy considering I used to put 2-4 hrs a day 7 days a week, into WoW and now I only log 2-3 days at most.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've finally passed the login screen. Must say, that was a pretty tough zone to get through.

    I echo the sentiment of others that you *better* continue blogging. Gaming subject doesn't matter. What matters is having a valuable point of view within the blogosphere, and you're a valuable point of view.

    I'll occassionally post to your blog with SWTOR comments so you can have some SWTOR "articles" ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm looking forward to trying it, which is funny as only a week ago I was still telling myself I wouldn't :) can't resist the new shiny.

    Like many others, I expect to sorta pick one or the other out of WoW or TOR for the bulk of my play, I can't possibly imagine myself playing two MMOs simultaneously. Luckily my Guild (also Shintar's although I am in the PvE "arm" whereas Shintar is in the PvP "arm") is 6/8 DS, so my WoW commitments are down to 2x 2.5 hour raids a week as we work on the last two encounters. I'm kinda hoping I can play endgame 2 nights a week in WoW, and spend time I might previously have spent on alts or dungeoneering on TOR instead. We'll see.

    And finally, I echo the clarion call for a TOR blog. You already inspired me to try the game Shinny, you can't abandon us all now! But I do support the delay whilst you focus on enjoying the game first, of course ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just blog about TOR. Blogs evolve.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Syl: I'm not sure it would be a good game for you to be honest, since you seem to be itching for more innovative gameplay and something that feels more sandboxy, and those are not features that the game offers right now. I do think it's great for people like me though, who loved WoW but haven't liked many of its more recent developments. For all the "single player RPG" comments people make about SWTOR, I'm finding it a lot more group-friendly than WoW for example. Yes, you can solo to the cap if you really want, but that's pretty standard for most MMOs these days. Being grouped is a lot more fun however, and I've spent very little time playing alone so far.

    @Redbeard: MoP is what worries me too to be honest. Cata has been lacklustre in many respects, but it's also had good features that I enjoyed. Right now I just don't see anything tickling my fancy beyond 5.0. Which FTP MMOs are you playing?

    @Doone: Maybe I'll look into it. :) To be honest I already do feel the urge to blog about some aspects of the game...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Even though I am a big SW fan I was not going to try out TOR but most of my old WoW guild are in having fun together again, so I am a bit torn about it.

    WoW totally blindsided me and I really and unexppectedly loved that game from my first hesitant steps in Goldwynn, so I feel I will be terribly disappointed if I try another game, my expectations would be so high.

    Besides, I don't have time to play! Got a new job and I'm studying archaeology (for real!) on the side so my spare time is very limited atm :)

    Looking forward to read you blogging about TOR though!

    ReplyDelete